Peru is a country of dramatic geographic contrasts and a very long history, longer than most people imagine. For centuries, dating as far back as 2000bC Peru had developed societies with their own complex religion and administration. Diverse ethnic groups lived scattered throughout the Andes, the jungles and the coast, organised in city-states, regional centres and even empires.

The mixture with the Spanish and subsequent immigration from Africa and the Far East, as well as Europe, has brought about a society that is immensely rich in culture and folklore.

Peru will also lead visitors into a world of art and age-old wisdom, the legacy of major pre-Hispanic civilizations such as the Quechua, Aymara and jungle peoples, whose view of the world was based on their observation of the Heavens and Nature. Over the course of centuries, Peru incorporated the cultural contribution of European, African and Asian migrants. A diverse nation featuring many cultures, Peru is an endless wellspring of creativity. In addition to its historic, archaeological and architectural legacies, folk art is another of Peru’s tourist attractions. Its rich folklore is evident in more than 1,500 musical genres, combining instruments from the outside world with native Andean equivalents, such as the quena and zampoña flutes, which provide the accompanying music for more than 3,000 festivals such as the Candelaria, Inti Raymi, Carnivals, Corpus Christi and Easter Week. At the same time, Peru boasts one of the most exquisite and varied cuisines on Earth, as local chefs have succeeded in adapting a diverse variety of native ingredients while remaining open to outside influences. Peru’s cooking is an invitation to discover flavors and fragrant smells which are as authentic as they are ancient.

A highlight of any visit to Lake Titicaca is seeing one of 300 traditional festivals that happen in this area each year. Lake Titicaca has the richest and most vibrant dances and celebrations in all of Peru and it is worth timing your trip to see one. Entire towns participate in the festivals of orchestras, musical groups, and elaborately costumed dancers move with precision and endurance. Though performed on Catholic holidays, most of the dances in Puno are rooted in pre-Columbian rituals of harvest, planting, herding, and magic.

The most famous dance is La Diablada, performed each year on February 2 during Puno’s Fiesta de la Virgen de la Candelaria. The dance is essentially a struggle between dozens of elaborately costumed angels and bug-eyed, horned devils, along with an ever-growing cast of new characters: the Widow, the Skeleton, the Old Man, the Mexican, the Redskin, Batman, etc. Other dances include Choq’elas, which is performed before the roundup of the vicuñas, and Q’ajelo, which ends when the gun-toting shepherds steal the dancing maidens before them and carry them off over their shoulders.